Contents -- Introduction -- I. Context -- 1. The Fundamental Story Pattern -- 2. The Creative Root -- 3. Drama's Continuity -- 4. Film and Dramaturgy -- 5. Audience Relations -- II. Primary Plot Elements -- 1. Screenplay Defined -- 2. Where Stories Come From -- 3. The Nature of Conflict -- 4. Location, Scene, Sequence -- 5. Starting Stories: Establishing Character and Conflict -- 6. Starting Stories: Choosing Material and Treatment -- 7. Backstory, Preparation, and Exposition -- 8. Complication, Major Reverse, Minor Reverse -- 9. Discovery and Its Types -- 10. The Dramatic Obstacle, Change, and Suspense -- 11. The Beginning: Development of the Dramatic Problem -- 12. The Middle: Development to the Crisis -- 13. The End: Climax and Resolution -- 14. Revelation, Clarity, Truth -- III. Dramatic Reality -- 1. Emotions Make Real -- 2. Identification, Empathy, Sympathy, and Fascination -- 3. Story, Dramatic, and Running Times -- 4. Cause and Effect: Immediacy and Meaning -- 5. Necessary and Probable -- 6. Irrational Versus Improbable Elements -- IV. Storytelling Stance and Plot Types -- 1. The Action: Point of Attack and Its Context -- 2. Plot Complexity, Types, Variation, and Magnitude -- 3. Dramatic Unity: Relating Subplots and Parallel Plots -- 4. Typical Story Patterns -- 5. Narration, Flashback, Fragmented Action -- 6. Exceptions -- V. Character -- 1. Sources and Types -- 2. Force, Consistency, Change, Truth -- 3. Defining Character -- 4. Building and Revealing -- 5. Motivation -- VI. Mind in Drama -- 1. Ideas and Innovation -- 2. Theme in Action -- 3. What Structure Is For -- 4. Creating Values and Moral Urgency -- VII. Spectacle and Other Elements -- 1. Spectacle and Special Effects -- 2. Music and Sound Effects -- 3. Dialogue -- 4. Symbol and Metaphor -- 5. Dramatic Irony -- 6. Comedic Turns -- 7. Adaptation.

VIII. Developing and Filming the Story -- 1. How Stories Really Develop -- 2. Premise, Treatment, Stepsheet, Storyboard -- 3. Production Facts of Life -- 4. Last Things: Manuals, Formats, and Perseverance -- Notes -- Screenplay Author List.